The New York Times:
Paul Ryan Emerges From Health Care Defeat Badly Damaged
For two days in January, all seemed right in the Republican Party. Gathered in Philadelphia for their annual congressional retreat, less than a week after President Trump’s inauguration, lawmakers exulted in the possibilities of total government control, grinning through forums about an aggressive 200-day agenda that began with honoring a central campaign promise: repealing the Affordable Care Act. (Flegenheimer and Kaplan, 3/25)

The New York Times:
Trump Becomes Ensnared In Fiery G.O.P. Civil War
President Trump ignites a lot of fights, but his failure to repeal the Affordable Care Act, the biggest defeat in his short time in the White House, was the result of something else: a long-running Republican civil war that humbled a generation of party leaders before he ever came to Washington. (Thrush and Haberman, 3/25)

Bloomberg:
Trump Praises Ryan On Health As Aides Privately Blame The Speaker
In public, President Donald Trump is standing by House Speaker Paul Ryan over the failed Obamacare replacement bill. “I like Speaker Ryan; he worked very, very hard,” Trump said in the Oval Office after Ryan on Friday pulled the legislation from the House floor for lack of support. Instead, the president pinned the responsibility on Democrats. Behind the scenes, though, the president’s aides blame Ryan for the bill’s embarrassing defeat, which stymied a Republican goal for more than seven years, a senior administration official said. (Jacobs and Pettypiece, 3/24)

Roll Call:
Cloud Hangs Over Trump-Ryan Partnership After Health Care Bill Fails
The death of President Donald Trump’s first major legislative initiative raises major questions about his ability to keep the fractious Republican caucus together and work with House Speaker Paul D. Ryan. GOP House members handed Trump another early-term setback Friday by killing the health care bill he demanded they take up when too many of them refused to support it. (Bennett, 3/27)

The Washington Post:
Trump Shifts Blame For Health-Care Collapse To Far Right
President Trump cast blame Sunday for the collapse of his effort to overhaul the health-care system on conservative interest groups and far-right Republican lawmakers, shifting culpability to his own party after initially faulting Democratic intransigence. His attack — starting with a tweet that singled out the House Freedom Caucus as well as the influential Club for Growth and Heritage Action for America — marked a new turn in the increasingly troubled relationship between the White House and a divided GOP still adjusting to its unorthodox standard-bearer. (Sullivan, Wagner and Phillips, 3/26)

Stat:
In Trump Country, Voters Know Who’s To Blame For The Health Bill Debacle. And It’s Not Their President.
They blame the establishment. They blame the Democrats. They blame the media. But it seems that few voters in Trump country blame President Trump for the stunning collapse of the Republican-led effort to repeal and replace Obamacare. “He did all he could, I think,” said Edward Reede, 73, who was pacing the sidewalk as he waited for a relative in the rural town of Front Royal in northwest Virginia. “You can only do so much as president. You can only twist so many arms.” (Siegelbaum and Martin, 3/25)

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